Christmas Crafts

At Christmas time your little one will likely love having a decorated tree in the house. This craft allows them to make their own decorated Christmas tree.

Step 1: Take a piece of green construction paper and cut it in half. With one half on top of the other cut out the shape of a Christmas tree. If you want the Christmas tree craft to be bigger you can use two whole pieces of construction paper instead of two halves. Cutting the two trees at the same time will make it easier to make them identical. This is something that you might think about doing before your little one is around if you want to avoid using scissors in front of them as much as possible.

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Step 2: Cut a slit into the top middle of one of the identical Christmas trees half way down the tree and cut an identical slit in the bottom half of the other identical Christmas tree. Cut out shapes for the ornaments that will go on your tree. Again you can do these things before hand if you want to keep the scissor cutting that you do with your child to a minimum. There is no rule as to what your ornaments should look like, different colored circles are great for the glass bulbs that you see on a Christmas tree.

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Step 3: Slide the slits together so your two 2D trees become one 3D tree. Lay the tree flat one side at a time and help your toddler put a piece of tape where the two pieces of construction paper meet. This will help your tree stand on it own as well as make it easier for you or especially your toddler to handle it while decorating it. You can just do the taping on your own if that is easier, perhaps your toddler could assist you in holding the tree down.

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Step 4: Help your toddler glue or tape the different shapes that you cut out earlier for your tree ornaments all throughout the tree. Stickers also make for a good way to decorate this Christmas tree craft, especially if they are Christmas themed or resemble real ornaments or your little one can color on the ornaments for the tree. You and your toddler can enjoy this wonderful craft as another Christmas decoration to be in your home or you could give it as a early Christmas gift to a friend of family member.

Many little children are thrilled when they find out that during the holidays is it common to bake a house of cookies. Ginger bread houses are quite a process and with the aid of a toddler that process can become very long. A quick alternative is to make a graham cracker house with your toddler.

Step 1: Since you are working with a toddler it can help if the plate that you use is plastic, and even better if it is the toddler kind that suction cups to the surface of the table. Line the outline of your graham cracker house with honey (or icing, peanut butter, syrup, etc) making a square shape. Make sure that you use a food that your toddler has eaten before. This is certainly no time to try out new foods with your toddler, if you don’t plan on eating this craft you can even use glue.

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Step 2: Take a whole graham cracker and gently break it into two square halves. Repeat this with a second graham cracker. This will create the four sides of your graham cracker house. Next, help your toddler set each side of graham cracker standing straight up in the honey (or what you used). Add a bit of honey to the corners. Your little one can certainly give a go at the breaking the crackers in half and hading the honey.

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Step 3: It helps to construct the roof prior to installing in on to the top of the graham cracker house. Take a fourth of a graham cracker and lay it flat. On either side of it using honey connect it to another fourth of a graham cracker, that is tilted sideways. Once secure you can connect the roof to the top of the house using honey, the two sides that the roof lays on can be lined with honey.

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Step 4: Lastly you and your toddler can decorate around the graham cracker house and on it using which ever foods that you want. Again you should be cautious of introducing new foods at this time. Plus you may want to stay away from a lot of sugar if you little one plans to devour their little house after they have made it. Unlike a ginger bread house if one of the walls breaks, it isn’t a big deal as long as you have graham crackers on hand.